Farewell to Manzanar Novell Analysis

Part III: theme analyses of Farewell to Manzanar 1)Title-Farewell to Manzanar, published in 1973, was written by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James D. Houston. It is a classic memoir of the life and struggles of a young Japanese internee and her family at Manzanar during World War Two. The title, "Farewell to Manzanar," automatically sets a theme of grief, sadness, and loss. The significance of the title throughout the book, is that Jeanne is forced to say "farewell" to her father, friends, and previous lifestyle atone point in time. During the time she lived at Manzanar, she had become a different person with a different perspective on life. Once she had left Manzanar, she had realized that her life there was the only life she knew how to live and now she had to say goodbye, and say hello to a brand new and unexpected life. 2) Author Biography- On September 26, 1934, Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston was born in Inglewood, California. Soon after the war ended, she attended Polytechnic High School, and attended and graduated from San Jose State University. She studied journalism and sociology. At the University of San Jose, Jeanne met her love James D.Houston, and they got married in 1957. Soon after her marriage, Jeanne's studied in France at the University of Paris. Along with Farewell to Manzanar, several other writing of hers were published. Such as Don't Cry, It's Only Thunder in 1984, and Beyond Manzanar and Other Views of Asian-American Womanhood in 1985. Jeanne is an American writer, and her writings focused mainly in diversity of ethnic cultures in the United States. Her written works focused America's attention on the issue of Japanese Americans suffrage during World War II, even if they had no affiliation with their homeland.

3) Theme-One of the primary themes in Farewell to Manzanar is family life in internment and how it becomes destroyed. Japanese families were played under internment by force not by choice. Jeanne's mother tried her hardest to keep her